The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-01-13

ha
str;ctlv ~ account only for those matters
he may control, but further than this they should
not 90 Under our form of government ~ is I'M
possible to get rid of q worthless oneer wnin tnS
period of his official life and in some lochhtles 1t
cannot be done at all. BY fixing the responsibility
in an individual (when practica0ie) you 1acllitats
the purpose of the. executive ana enable MN We
| more readily to correct the ABUSE Hon "hiSh I'll"
| public may suffer -,
These state lands should be managed as an lnal-
vidual would manage them There Is no more
| mystery in the proper administration OF govern
ment than there is in the judcioue conducS OF any
other enterprise. The same bu mess idea VIII Do
successful in government that will succeed III prl-
The lands must be classified. Let the governor
appoint agents to do the work. giving each dis
| trict. Then the poor man or the rlch, wnen ne
| wants to buy home, will know to whom 10 LOOK
These agents can explain the character OF the lands
snd II necessary, can show them. Let them be-
disconnected in other respects with the govern
| ment state or municipal. After due Inspection
or satisfactory description of the land, Il price s
mutually agreed upon, the agent senos Forward me
sale to be approved or disalproved by the superior
| whether he be governor OF land 0oard), ana me
entire transaction 10 settled in half the time it takes
to make formal application to the present Doaru,
and ut such prices as the character OF the aha Will
| justify. ia.
and arbitrary prices will not CO. The sooner,
therefore, the existing system is modified the bet
ter it will be for the general public. -
The legislature should provide tor venue anu
court to collect the rents from persons VINO nave
| been occupying these lands since the date OF the
| land act of 1865 They are still good Ior tnees
| charges, and should be made TO pay. otherwlse,
| those who have already paiG should nave their
money refunded them.
THE PENITENTIARIEs.
The system of penal servtude is one of the most
difficult problems of government, and lts empar-
ra+ sing features are aggravated by the fact that
nearly three thousand concts swell the roll of our
| penitentaries.
At the Rusk institution the iron industry has
nI,nl and 10 I'm
operation. After the con- pletion OF the furnace 1t
was legsed to Messrs. Conner u Farrls, and under
their management it turned out about nine tons OF
iron per day. They finally pronounced the indus
try failure and surrendered their contract. 1ts
operation was then undertaken ny t state, and
under its present management it has turned out,
average, thirty tons per day OF splendid iron.
The ore is inexhaustihe, and the enterprise is a
complete success. The board has added 10 the
grounds by the purchase of 1877 acres of land from
Dr. Jamison, and also coal and wood lands from
other persons. The foundry and machine shops
are in successful operation, and are now turning
out great quantities of columns, pedestas, bases,
and castings for our new capitol, as well he water
piping and various other articles for which there is
a good market.
At Huntsville the wagon and furniture industry
is carried on and all the cohing shoes, hats, etc,
needed for bot5 penitentiares are manufactured.
These factories are also conducted by the state,
and so successful have they become that the man
agement has recently purchased farm and addeda
large store house THESE are all paid for; the farm
is in fine condition, and at this as well as the other
prison, the convicts are in excellent health.
The penitentiary board has also purchased, with
my approval, fine sugar farm on Oyster creek, in
Fort Bend county 1t consists of 200 acres, cost
So, 00) and was paid for out of the earnings of
convicts employed in building the narrow gauge
Railroad from kusk to Lufkin.
The true theory of this species seryituda
demon strates that the conviCts should be confined
within the prison walls, and while this idea forms
large factor in the political capital stock of many
an aspiring office-seeker yet nearly all of them
shrink from an enthusiastic advocacy of the doc
trine the moment You confront them with the in
creased taxation the change entails.
Passing from this phase of the difficulty, let us
briefly eS "mine it from another and more serious
standpoint We hear it constanty asserted by
well-meaning people that the inmates should not
come in competition with free labor How we
to prevent it? would be 81 d If could see
way OUT of the dilemma. But there is only one
way to avoid competition, and that is for the tax
payers to make up their minds to sustain the
victs in idleness at the expense or the public.
This is he plain issue, and when the people are
prepared to meet II, then, but not till then will
this problem he solved.
The number of cOnyicte is constantly increasing
Ae one of the means If preventing o. lessening
his, sugges ed in my message in 1888 the rec
ton of reformatOry and the remOdeling of our
criminal code. This again urge upon the legis-
lature. The youth should not 90 TO the peniien-
lAry with the worst class of criminals, should
men be sent to felon's cell in Cases where only
short terms of imprisonment are awarded. We
now have the farce often enacted in this state of
men being sent for day, and in some cases only
for an hour, to the pententiary. Ia such cases as
these h.ve never refused to pardOn, for no
stronger appeal for ClemenCy could be advanced
than such rdict in itself furnishes, and this,
too, on grounds of economy as well as justice.
Since the abroga ion of the lease in 1883, it has
often been serious question what we could do
with the convicts. AT one time they were nearly
All surrendered by the railroads, thus magnifying
the complications. We tried renting and farming
and although little could he realized in this way
we bad he satisfaction at least OF keeping them
healthy and paying expenses.
When the proposition came to change the mate
rial in the construction of the new capitol from
limestone to granite, the board at my suggestion,
took the responsibility of letting the contractors
have number of the men to work at sXty-fve
cents per dat, worHlng in the hills and cutting
stone. by this, az one OF the means at least we
have succeeded in getting The structure built of the
finest granite materiG in the world We have also
heen enabled to make the prisoners thus en-
pi0yed lot only sef-supporting, but have realized
Sl5,' Ociear profit from Oh 4r earuings aud at the
same time educated number of them as granite
cutters.
The nineteenth legislature failed to make ap-
preparations to pay for carrying prisoners from
the Jalls to the peniteniaries, anu was compelled
to use from the general penitentiary apmopria-
ions the sum of 81 ,3N to nj ct this demand
1t is often said that "the peniteutlary question
must ~ setlled; The penItentiary question will
never be settled 80 long as penientiary is main
tabled nnd the men are sent TO it. The
prison question is one that has ever and will
continue forever to be a"eXeo one. The chief
trouble IL, how to prevent their industry COM
ihS IN NoHHlCt Wltu Tree lhbOF. II the COnyiCtS
are placed within the walls and forced to prOduce
or manufacture anything the world wants con-
met must arise with outside labor. They might be
put 10 work at something that the world does not
want, and in that event no conflict would arise Int
now would such labor support them? And yet
,hls Is not all there are some who can never be
Kept inside the walls with proper regard for their
health Farms belonging to the state il The only
held Tor them, and, therefore, | recommend the
purchase o. additional lands to work them on.
we now have number of prisoners well skill
ed in cutting stone and in view of the feet that adj
oitlonal pententiaries will have to b. built re-
commend the purchase of the water power at Mar
nlt Fails and The granite quarries in Bnrnet county
II they can be had at reasonable figures Ample
power can be had there for any amount of ma
chnery, aud the granite industry will afford labor
Tor a large number of people for an indefinite
period. The Burnet granite is in all respects the
equal OF the red Scotch granite so extensively i'm
ported into this country, and as it is as inex-
haust4De as 1t is excellent, and the location being
admirably ada tied to tine purpose mentioned. I
MINK thr legislature would subselve the best in